C O N F I D E N T I A L VILNIUS 000624
SIPDIS
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/OHI
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/23/2019
TAGS: PHUMSCULSOCILH
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S INTRODUCTORY CALL ON JEWISH COMMUNITY
LEADERS
Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Damian R. Leader for reasons 1.4
(b) and (d).
Â¶1. (U) SUMMARY: Lithuania's small Jewish community,
largely elderly and impoverished, lives among a homogeneous
ethnic Lithuanian population, significant elements of which
accept anti-Semitic stereotypes and blame the Jews for
fighting alongside Soviet soldiers during World War II,
Jewish leaders told Ambassador Derse during her introductory
call on the community's elected chairman. The Holocaust took
the lives of 95 percent of the country's Jews, the highest
percentage of any country, and many Lithuanians are loath to
acknowledge that their countrymen participated in massacres
of Jews, the community leaders said. The Jewish community
has tried for years, unsuccessfully, to regain ownership of
communal property confiscated by the Nazis and Soviets, and
hopes to eventually use proceeds from restitution to help
restore Jewish life and culture in the country. End summary.
Â¶2. (U) Ambassador Derse visited the central Vilnius offices
of the Jewish Community of Lithuania (JCL) on November 17 to
pay a courtesy call on Simonas Alperavicius, the elderly
elected chairman of the JCL. Also present were the JCL's two
vice chairwomen, Faina Kukliansky and Masha Grodnikiene, JCL
executive director Simonas Gurevicius and the chief rabbi of
Lithuania, Chaim Burshtein, who lives in Lithuania only part
time. Alperavicius, 81, has been chairman of the JCL for 17
years.
Anti-Semitism
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Â¶3. (U) Alperavicius told the Ambassador that widespread
anti-Semitism hurts the community; he cited a survey showing
that 37 percent of Lithuanians harbor negative attitudes
towards Jews. Also, with the 70th anniversary of the
infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop pact this year, he said,
Lithuanians have been comparing the Nazi and Soviet regimes
and debating which was worse for Lithuania. Because some
Lithuanian Jews fought alongside Soviet troops or Communist
partisans against the Nazis, some Lithuanians and media
outlets today claim that the Jews were complicit with the
Soviets and thus not patriotic Lithuanians, said
Alperavicius. He himself was born in Vilnius, fled to Russia
with his family at the outbreak of the war before returning
in 1944, and has lived in Lithuania ever since.
Â¶4. (U) "What insults me most is that we are treated as if
we are Jews but not citizens of Lithuania," said Grodnikiene,
JCL vice chairwoman.
Â¶5. (U) Gurevicius, the JCL executive director, said, "This
is not anti-Israelism, but anti-Semitism based on old
stereotypes. We try not to fight against anti-Semitism, but
instead we try to fight for tolerance. We're trying to open
the doors to the community. For us it's a challenge, but
it's that much more of a challenge for this (the larger
Lithuanian) community."
Â¶6. (U) Kukliansky, a lawyer who is also head of the Jewish
Community of Vilnius, said intolerance was able to take root
because almost no political, social or intellectual leaders
in Lithuania were willing to speak out against it, in part
because they would likely then be attacked themselves by
newspapers that are extremist but also very popular.
Â¶7. (C) Alperavicius said to the Ambassador: "Although
Lithuania became a member of the European Union, it has not
become a real European country. I can tell you that. I
can't say it publicly."
Â¶8. (U) The Ambassador asked whether the European Union has
been any help in fostering tolerance or taking Lithuania to
task for failing to live up to its obligations as a member
state. She also said, "The United States Government cares
about tolerance and diversity. President Obama has made
clear how incredibly important those values are to us. I
believe the issue of education for tolerance in society is
very important." She promised that the Embassy would work
with the Jewish community and others to promote tolerance.
Communal property restitution
-----------------------------
Â¶9. (U) One of the primary goals of the JCL has been to
regain communal property confiscated from the Jewish
community during the Nazi and Soviet occupations. "The
strengthening of anti-Semitism is also related to
restitution, because the television and papers talk about it
as if Lithuania was giving away its property, not simply
returning property that was taken from the Jews. People
don't differentiate communal property from private property."
Alperavicius also said that there is no state-sponsored
anti-Semitism in Lithuania, but that "there are a lot of
government officials who are anti-Semitic in their views, and
we feel this."
Â¶10. (U) Gurevicius, the JCL executive director, said the
Jewish community sees restitution as a tool, not an aim. The
goal is to revive Jewish culture and Jewish life in a country
where 95 percent of the Jews were exterminated, he said, and
the money from property restitution would help to do that.
Â¶11. (C) The GOL has submitted to the Seimas (parliament) a
bill that would provide partial compensation of 128 million
LTL (about USD 55 million) -- but not actual restitution of
property -- to the Jewish community for some of its
confiscated buildings. But GOL and Seimas leaders have told
us that the bill will not come up for debate until after
passage of the 2010 government budget, for fear that a
proposal to pay millions of dollars to Jews at a time when
the government is cutting pensions and other social benefits
would raise anti-Semitism, have no chance of passage, hurt
the budget's chances of passage and, in the words of the
Justice Minister, be "political suicide."
Â¶12. (C) Local and international Jewish leaders who have
long negotiated the restitution issue with the GOL have
publicly said the bill before the Seimas is inadequate and
not acceptable, but privately they say they are willing to
accept it, as they believe it is their only chance to get any
compensation at all.
Â¶13. (U) The Ambassador said that the Embassy has paid close
attention to the restitution issue and would continue to
follow the progress of the bill in the Seimas.
Snipiskes cemetery
------------------
Â¶14. (U) Rabbi Burshtein thanked the Ambassador for the
Embassy's assistance in getting the GOL to protect from
future development the Snipiskes Cemetery, a centuries-old
Jewish burial ground in central Vilnius. "People whose books
are learned in every yeshiva in the world are buried here,
and that's very important to us." The Ambassador said that
the Embassy has made clear to GOL officials that while
declaring the cemetery protected was a positive move, it must
be followed by clear steps to implement the declaration and
restore the cemetery to its proper use and appearance.
Community growth
----------------
Â¶15. (U) The JCL leaders gave the Ambassador an overview of
their activities: feeding and caring for destitute and
elderly Jews, providing religious and language instruction,
operating a Jewish school and kindergarten, publishing books
and hosting conferences on a variety of topics related to
Jewish culture, religion and history. Grodnikiene said, "Our
largest achievement is our young generation, which will
ensure continuity, that our community will continue in the
future."
DERSE